Tag: awd

Gregor Halenda is a man whose talents I’ve followed for many years. Long-time readers will remember the post I wrote up about Gregor’s multiple projects (with no less than 6 links to various threads) that he had a hand in, including his gorgeous home that opened my eyes to the wonders of mid century modern architecture. That post was made over two years ago, and Gregor has not been idle. Along with his busy photography schedule, he has turned his attentions to creating a capable adventure vehicle for quality family time on (and off) the open road. The base vehicle? An airport shuttle bus!

Sure, you could buy yourself an STi Impreza, but where’s the fun in that? What about taking an all original, low-milage 1986 Subaru Leone, converted to AWD thanks to an XT6 (Vortex) donor, with an engine consisting of a built EJ22T bottom end and STi Version 8 Type RA heads? Yeah, I’d choose the Leone too. The initial build is done and dusted quite quickly, but the car continues to evolve throughout the thread. Unfortunately it meets a guard rail towards the end, but is thankfully repaired swiftly and with OEM parts back to better than new condition.

Thanks to Rodd and Tom for both submitting separately. Click here for more Subaru builds.

Here’s one of my oldest drafts, it’s been gathering dust for many, many years. I pretty much convinced myself I’d never feature it, because the thread stopped receiving updates a long time ago. But I have a desire to purge all of my draft posts, and well, this one is just crazy enough to warrant a feature in it’s unfinished state. If anyone out there knows what happened to this car, if it was ever completed, please let me know! The car starts out as an Alfa 147 Cup Car, it was then stripped down and fitted with GTR underpinnings, before heading to an unknown fate.

Thanks to Jamel for submitting. Click here for more RB26 builds. Click here for more Alfa Romeo builds.

Things have been quieter than usual around here and on Facebook/Twitter lately, and while I do apologise for that, I promise I have a good reason! My wife and I welcomed our first child into the world just over a week ago, so things have been understandably busy at home. But believe me when I say that in the back of my mind I was always thinking about the site and how you guys would be hanging for a new build! So, here we go. This car has been on my radar for a while, a great example of a home-built concoction, all fabricated by the owner, mixing a MK1 Volkswagen Caddy body with a MKIV Bora 4-motion V6 AWD driveline, and plenty of welding to stick it all together.

It’s been a while since we’ve had one of these completely bonkers builds. You know the type; pedestrian fwd hatch, completely gutted, filled with a skeleton of tubing, a north/south facing engine conversion, race-quality suspension and a change of driveline orientation? Yeah, one of those! While I could make up some story about how this car changed my life and waffle on for 1000 words about it, you know I leave that fluffy stuff up to the other blogs, so here’s the stats: MK6 Fiesta, formerly turbo diesel, now Cosworth powered all wheel drive, JWRC wide body kit, WRC rear cradle, full cage and tube front and rear ends, and heaps more. I think the pictures will speak for themselves, enjoy!

Fun fact: This is the 5th time I’ve used the word ‘bonkers‘ to describe a car (yes, I checked). Click here for more Ford builds.

If you’re an Aussie, like I am, then you’d be well versed in the Holden vs Ford debate, even if you don’t fancy either marquee, it’s an argument with no expiry date. Almost as well known as this red and blue rivalry is the tale of the NissanSkylineGTR dominating the touring car races of the early 90’s, a story regularly re-told by many a Skyline owner with a smirk on their face. It’s fair to say the Skyline was not liked by Holden and Ford fans of that era. So what do we make of this, then? A Holden LX Torana fitted with an R32SkylineGTR engine and AWD system. Two ex-Bathurst legends which would have been fierce rivals on ‘The Mountain’ were it not for the age gap, now combined into one machine. Personally, I love it, and I thank you for following that very drawn-out intro that possibly makes little sense at all.

The Ferrari F40 LM Restoration was always going to be a hard act to follow, so you can imagine my dilemma in trying to find something suitable for the next post. In the end, I didn’t have to look very far, because the build came to me!

Henri just emailed me this very interesting project, a brand spanking new Nissan Qashqai/Dualis, stripped down to it’s undies with it’s floorpan cut out, dropped over a diced up R35 GTR, creating one very fast compact SUV. Well, actually, the company behind the build, SVM, is building two of these monsters, a 550BHP white one, and a Kuro Black model pushing out 900BHP, but this build focuses on the white one.

The humble little Opel Corsa (or Holden Barina in my country) was designed to be used as an affordable and efficient means of transport, nothing more, nothing less. But that doesn’t mean you can’t tear it apart and fit a turbo-charged AWD drivetrain from it’s bigger brother, the Calibra, which is exactly what this Swedish builder did…

I think I better feature this build just so people stop submitting it! Around 3 or 4 people have emailed me various links to this car in the last month, including one of the men behind it, Mike from Eurowise. Once you take a look at the images, you’ll see why it’s getting so much attention. Already the recipient of one very nice build including a turbo’d 16V 2.0, the car has recently been torn down for a full overhaul. It’s no secret I’m a big fan of MK1 Golfs, and even though I like them a bit more sedately built, this one takes things to the extreme with an engine, driveline, and floorplan being swapped under it from a MKIV R32 Golf, including the AWD system. I especially like how the MKIV rear end was shortened and sectioned to fit inside the dimensions of the MK1 body, instead of just tacking on some wheel arch flares or going widebody. Did I mention it’s also going to be twin turbo?